I'm brainstorming for an article I'll be writing entitled The Journalists' Guide to Hybrid Cars. It will concisely address the most common mistakes journalists make when writing stories about the topic in an effort to improve the accuracy of future stories and keep "hybrid ignorance" to a minimum.

What do you think some of the most important points to mention are? Here's what I've got so far:

Addressing accurate mileage figures
Fair comparisons to other cars
Full hybrid vs. mild hybrid vs. not hybrid (& relative advantages/disadvantages)
Performance (yes) and plugs (no)
False stories (threat to emergency response teams, etc.)
Awareness of media's devil's advocate position (of course, they're playing the part)
Comparing horsepower

 

I think the general public believes that most hybrids are slow and underpowered.

Make mention of the driving experience - the hybrid components can be totally transparent.

Drive it like any other vehicle and get good mpg's, with good acceleration.
Drive it like conservatively and get great mpg's.

Regards,

 

My observations on people that review hybrids:

- They don't understand (or care) that while you can drive it like a conventional car, it takes at least a few weeks to understand the nuiances and achieve the greatest performance and economy.

- They seem to use a sports car as a benchmark, even when the vehicle was not intended to perform like one.

- To state the obvious, most did not do their homework before they did their review.

 

The media needs to be aware of break-in delay. Most drivers experience a delay in getting optimum mileage and performance until the vehicle is broken in, or even slightly broken in. Break-in is a good sign. It means that the vehicles are tight when they are delievered, which is a very general indication of good build quality.

 

It seems to me that if a regular ole truck is EPA rated at 19mpg but the owner only gets 17.1mpg (10% less) no one cares. If a hybrid is rated 50 but the new owner only gets 45 (also 10% less) the world is surely gonna end. I think the reason is twofold. The customer that bought the truck that gets 19mpg was not worried about the mileage in the first place but the guy who bought the hybrid did so in part to get good mileage so mileage is in the spotlight. The second part of the reason for the difference in perception is the very fact that hybrids do get good mileage so 10% of 50mpg is 5mpg while 10% of 19mpg is only 1.9mpg. The hybird's 5mpg shorrtfall looks a lot worse than the truck's 1.9mpg shortfall even thought they are both exactly 10%.

 

I agree with lakedude, and would add one more:

The third part of the reason is that the truck owner does not have a big fat display sitting on his dashboard telling him he's not getting what the EPA said he would. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.

Get rid of that ignorance, as hybrids do, and it's a different story. I have a friend with a new Subaru with a mileage meter on the dash, and guess what?

- He's not getting what the EPA says
- He's unhappy with the car regarding his mileage

I think if the whole world had their MPG glaring at them from the dashboard, there would either be a lot more unhappy campers, or else people would realize that the EPA numbers are just estimates and may not reflect reality in certain cases.

 

Absolutely.

 

The media, in general, has also failed to point out what the EPA test is really like. That isn't described on the window sticker of any car. What the window stickers should say is that the vehicles are tested on a dyno, that the test doesn't start until the engine is fully warmed up and that it will be impossible to replicate these conditions in real life. But we have had plenty of those threads before, haven't we?

 

Lakedude's got it- that realtime mpg guage is our best friend and our worst enemy!

How about pointing out one of the base points of the whole reason for hybrids & hypermileage: less gas/oil use. whether or not jane average gets epa 48mpg or realworld 40mpg- she's still using less of a finite resource not to mention the TONS of CO not produced.
very often the journalists & bean counters compare the mileage of say, a regular civic to the increase of a hybrid- which is not a huge jump, especially without good driving technique. BUT- not everyone was going to buy a civic in the first place- maybe by buying a hybrid instead of the minivan or explorer- they saved alot more. I personally would not have bought a civic to replace my explorer- I came for the hybrid, and my mileage went from 17mpg to 48mpg. my CO went from 14,900 pounds to 5,200 pounds. that's a reduction of almost 5 TONS of CO!!
the comparisons always seem set-up to minimize gains & maximize cost.

 

Maybe maintenance should be addressed? People seem to think that they're far more expensive to maintain than a regular car, but it's not necesarily true.